Chapter 4

Basics of PHP
Internet Programming
Mr. Abel T.
 Contents
Introduction
Features of PHP

Setting up PHP with Apache

Basic PHP Syntax

Retrieve data from HTML forms

Displaying Errors

Control & Loop Statements

References and Arrays

Functions
Web Programming 2
 Server-side programming
 Server-side pages are programs written using one of many
web programming languages/frameworks
 Scripts (programs) are stored on the server and are
executed on request (from a client).
 Result of execution is sent to client in the form of HTML.
 The server side script/program itself is never returned to
the client!
 My be written in a wide variety of programming/scripting
languages.
▪ php, asp, c/c++, perl, java, …
 Can perform several powerful operations.
▪ Examples: PHP, Java/JSP, Ruby on Rails, ASP.NET,
Python, Perl
Web Programming 3
 Cont’d
 Also called server side scripting:
▪ Dynamically edit, change or add any content to a Web
page
▪ Respond to user queries or data submitted from HTML
forms
▪ Access any data or databases and return the results to a
browser
▪ Customize a Web page to make it more useful for
individual users
▪ Provide security since your server code cannot be viewed
from a browser

Web Programming 4
 Cont’d
 Web server:
▪ contains software that allows it to run server side
programs
▪ sends back their output as responses to web
requests
 Each language/framework has its pros and cons
▪ we use PHP

Web Programming 5
 What is PHP?
 PHP stands for "PHP Hypertext Preprocessor“
 Open-source, server-side scripting language
 Used to make web pages dynamic:
▪ provide different content depending on context - dynamic
▪ interface with other services: database, e-mail, etc.
▪ authenticate users
▪ process form information
 can be embedded within HTML code
 Object Orientation supported
 Source-code not visible by client
▪ ‘View Source’ in browsers does not display the PHP code
 Various built-in functions allow for fast development
 Compatible with many popular databases
Web Programming 6
Lifecycle of a PHP web request

Web Programming 7
 Where does PHP fit?
server
Page
HTTP
Request
Added
Internet or Web
function
Intranet Server
ality

Web Browser
Web Web
page page

Server-side
Client-side
“Dynamic pages”
“Active pages”
CGI, SSI, Server
JavaScript, VBScript,
API, ASP, JSP, PHP,
Applet, ActiveX
COM/DCOM,
CORBA
Active and dynamic page technology can be used
together – server-side program generates customized
active pages
Web Programming 8
Server-side execution using PHP Script

Web-Client Web-Server

HTML-Form Submit Call PHP

Form Data interpreter

PHP
Web-Browser WWW Script
Response Response
Reply

Web Programming 9
 Putting it all together
Web-Client Database
Web-Server Server
HTML-Form
(+JavaScript) Submit Call PHP DBMS
Data interpreter LAN

PHP SQL
Web-Browser WWW Script commands
Response Response Database
Reply Output

Web Programming 10
 Including PHP in a Web Page
 There are 4 ways of including PHP in a web page
1. <?php echo("Hello world"); ?>
2. <script language = "php">
echo("Hello world");
</script>
3. <? echo("Hello world"); ?>
4. <% echo("Hello world"); %>
 You can also use print instead of echo
 Method (1) is clear and unambiguous
 Method (2) is useful in environments supporting mixed
scripting languages in the same HTML file (most do not)
 Methods (3) and (4) depend on the server configuration

Web Programming 11
 Basic PHP Syntax
 Syntax
▪ PHP code should enclosed within:
<?php and ?>
So that it is distinguished from HTML.
▪ Hence, the PHP parser only parses code which is in between
<?php and ?>
• PHP code can be embedded in HTML
▪ Contents between <?php and ?> are executed as PHP code
▪ All other contents are output as pure HTML
Example: HTML content
<p>This is going to be ignored.</p> <?php
<?php echo 'While this is going to be parsed.'; ?> PHP code
?>
<p>This will also be ignored.</p> HTML content ...

Web Programming 12
 Hello World!
<?php
print "Hello, world!";
?> PHP

Web Programming 13
 Comments
# single-line comment
# another single-line comment style
/*
multi-line comment
*/
 like Java and JavaScript but # is also allowed
- a lot of PHP code uses # comments instead of //

Web Programming 14
 Data Types
 Boolean (bool or boolean)
▪ Simplest of all
▪ Can be either TRUE or FALSE
 Integer (int or integer)
▪ Hold integer values (signed or unsigned)
 Floating point (float or double or real)
▪ Hold floating point values
 String (string)
▪ Hold strings of characters within either ‘ or ‘’
▪ Escaping of special characters can be done using \
▪ Ex. “this is a string”, ‘this is another string’, “yet
\”another\” one”
Web Programming 15
 Cont’d
 Array
▪ Collection of values of the same data type
 Object
▪ Instance of a class
 Resource
▪ Hold a reference to an external resource created by
some functions
 NULL
▪ Represents that a variable has no value
▪ A variable is considered to be NULL if
• it has been assigned the constant NULL.
• it has not been set to any value yet.
• it has been unset()
Web Programming 16
 Type Casting
 The casts allowed are:
▪ (int), (integer) - cast to integer
▪ (bool), (boolean) - cast to boolean
▪ (float), (double), (real) - cast to float
▪ (string) - cast to string
▪ (array) - cast to array
▪ (object) - cast to object

Web Programming 17
 Variables
 Variable names always begin with dollar sign ($), on both
declaration and usage
 names are case sensitive
 Valid variable name → starts with letter or underscore,
followed by any number of letters, numbers, or
underscores
 PHP is not strongly typed
▪ No variable declaration ( implicit )
▪ To create a variable, just assign some value to it!
Example:
$myNum = 5; //declares and assigns 5 to variable $myNum
$var = 'Bob';
$4site = 'not yet'; //invalid; starts with number
Web Programming 18
 Cont’d
❑ basic types: int, float, boolean, string, array, object,
NULL
• test type of variable with is_type functions, e.g.
is_string
• gettype function returns a variable's type as a string
❑ PHP converts between types automatically in many
cases:
• string → int auto-conversion on +
• int → float auto-conversion on /
❑ type-cast with (type):
• $age = (int) "21";

Web Programming 19
 Cont’d
 Referencing
$var1 = “some string”;
$var2 = &$var1;
$var2 = “another string”
echo $var1; //another string
echo $var2; //another string

Web Programming 20
 Cont’d
 Variables within double quoted strings (“”) are
parsed
Example
$name = “Abebe”;
$message = “Hello $name”;
echo $message; //Hello Abebe
 Variables within single quoted strings (‘’) are not
parsed!
Example
$name = “Abebe”;
$message = ‘Hello $name’;
echo $message; //Hello $name
Web Programming 21
 Cont’d
 Array variables
▪ Can be created using the array() construct.
Syntax: array( [ key => ] value, … )
key : can be an integer or a string
value : can be any value
Example
<?php
$arr = array( "foo", "bar” );
echo $arr[0]; // foo
echo $arr[1]; // bar
?>
Web Programming 22
 Cont’d
Example
<?php
$arr = array("foo" => "bar", 12 => true);

echo $arr["foo"]; // bar

echo $arr[12]; // 1
?>

▪ Floats in key are truncated to integer.

▪ There are no different indexed and associative array
types in PHP; there is only one array type, which can
both contain integer and string indices.
Web Programming 23
 Variables (cont’d)
▪ The value in an array can be anything (even an
array)

Example
<?php
$arr = array("somearray" => array(6 => 5, 13
=> 9, "a" => 42));

echo $arr["somearray"][6]; // 5
echo $arr["somearray"][13]; // 9
echo $arr["somearray"]["a"]; // 42
Intern
?> 24
 Variables (cont’d)
▪ If you do not specify a key for a given value,
then the maximum of the integer indices is
taken, and the new key will be that maximum
value + 1.
• If no integer indices exist yet, the key will be 0
(zero).
▪ If you specify a key that already has a value
assigned to it, that value will be overwritten.
Example
<?php
// This array is the same as ...
array(5 => 43, 32, 56, "b" => 12);
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Intern
 Variables (cont’d)
❖Creating/modifying with square-bracket
syntax
▪ You can also modify an existing array by
explicitly setting values in it
Syntax
$arr[key] = value;
$arr[] = value;
// key may be an integer or string
// value may be any value
▪ If $arr doesn't exist yet, it will be created
▪ To change a certain value, just assign a new
26
Intern
value to an element specified with its key.
 Variables (cont’d)
Example
<?php
$arr = array(5 => 1, 12 => 2);

$arr[] = 56; // same as $arr[13] = 56;

$arr["x"] = 42; // adds a new element to the

array with key "x"

unset($arr[5]); // removes the element from

the array
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Intern
unset($arr); // This deletes the whole array
 Variables (cont’d)
❖To print the content of an array, use the
print_r() function.
▪ Syntax: print_r($arr);
Example
<?php
$array = array(1, 2, 3, 4, 5);
print_r($array);
?>
Output: Array ( [0] => 1
[1] => 2
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[2] => 3
Intern
[3] => 4
 Variables (cont’d)
❖For a list of array related functions,
refer to the Official PHP Reference
Manual.

29
Intern
 Variables (cont’d)
❖Strings
▪ Three types of string literals
• Single quoted
– $str1 = ‘some string’;
• Double quoted
– $str2 = “some other string”;
• Heredoc
– $str3 = <<<EOD
Example of string
spanning multiple lines
using heredoc syntax.
EOD;

30
Intern
 Variables (cont’d)
❖Character escaping
▪ If the string is enclosed in double-quotes ("),
PHP understands more escape sequences for
special characters:

sequence meaning
\n linefeed
\r carriage return
\t horizontal tab
\\ backslash
\$ dollar sign
\" 31
double-quote
Intern
 Variables (cont’d)
▪ Variable parsing
variables within double quoted strings are
parsed.

Example
<?php
$beer = 'Heineken';
echo "$beer's taste is great"; // works
echo "He drank some $beers"; // won't work
echo "He drank some ${beer}s"; // works
echo "He drank some {$beer}s"; // works
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Intern ?>
 Variables (cont’d)
❖String concatenation
▪ Use the . (dot) operator
Example
<?php
$var1 = “Today is “;
$message = $var1 . date(“d-m-Y”); //Today is
28-12-2007
?>
❖Indexing strings
▪ $str[index]
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Intern ▪ String index starts with 0 (similar to arrays)
 Output
❖Three types of output
▪ Using the function echo
• Syntax: echo $var or echo string_constant
▪ Using short tags
• Syntax: <?= $var ?>
▪ Using heredoc
• Syntax:
echo <<<LABEL
….
LABEL;
* LABEL must be placed in the first column of a new line.
* Special characters, like “, need not be escaped
34
Intern
 Arithmetic Operations
 Operators
▪ Addition + 1+1
▪ Subtraction - $x - 5
▪ Multiplication * 2 * $y
▪ Division / $a / $b
▪ Modulus % $c % 2
 Automatic Conversion
▪ "Lucky numbers are $n1 and $n2"

Web Programming 35
 Control Structures
 Control Structures: Are the structures within a language
that allow us to control the flow of execution through a
program or script.
 Grouped into conditional (branching) structures (e.g. if/else)
and repetition structures (e.g. while loops)
 Example if/else if/else statement:
if ($foo == 0) {
echo ‘The variable foo is equal to 0’;
}
else if (($foo > 0) && ($foo <= 5)) {
echo ‘The variable foo is between 1 and 5’;
}
else {
echo ‘The variable foo is equal to ‘.$foo;}
Web Programming 36
 Input
 Input to server side scripts comes from clients through
forms
 Two methods of sending data: GET & POST
▪ GET
• Search queries and small amounts of data
• Also generated when a user clicks on a link
• Non secure (displayed in address bar)
▪ POST
• Large and secure data
▪ The default method for HTML forms is GET
 To access form field values in PHP, use the built-in
PHP arrays: $_GET and $_POST respectively for GET
and POST request methods
Web Programming 37
 Cont’d
 The names of the form fields will be used as indices in the
respective arrays
 For example, to access the value of an input box named
‘first_name’ in a form whose method is POST, write:
$_POST[ ‘first_name’ ]
 If the form method is GET,
$_GET[ ‘first_name’ ]
Example:
<form method=‘POST’ action=“login.php”>
<input type=‘text’ name=‘username’><br>
<input type=‘password’ name=‘password’><br>
<input type=‘submit’ value=‘login’>
</form>
Web Programming 38
 Cont’d
<?php
$username = $_POST[ ‘username’ ];
$password = $_POST[ ‘password’ ];
if($username == “user” && $password == “pass”){
//login successful
header( ‘Location: home.php’ );
exit();
}else{
//login failed
header( ‘Location: login.html’ );
exit();
}
} ?>
Web Programming 39
 Cont’d
 In effect, all form data will be available to PHP
scripts through the appropriate array: $_GET or
$_POST
 Another way of getting input from client can be
using cookies
 Cookie is information stored on the client by the
server
 Cookies stored on a client associated to a particular
server are sent to the server every time that same
client computer requests for a page
 Cookies are often used to identify a user
Web Programming 40
 Cont’d
 To create a cookies, use the setcookie() function
 Cookies must be sent before any output from your
script.
▪ This function must be called before any other output in
the PHP file, i.e before <html>, any spaces, …
 To retrieve a cookie value, use the $_COOKIE array
with the name of the cookie as index
<html><body>
<?php if( isset( $_COOKIE[ “uname” ] ) )
echo “Welcome “ . $_COOKIE[ “uname” ] . “! <br> “;
else
echo “Cookie not set <br>”;
?>
Web Programming 41
 Operators
Arithmetic
▪ +, -, *, /, %, --, ++
Assignment (simple, compound)
▪ =, +=, -=, *=, /=, %=
Comparison
▪ ==, != , ===, !==, <, >, <=, >=
Logical
▪ &&, || , !
String
▪ . (dot)
Web Programming 42
 Control Structures
Conditional constructs
▪ If … else
if ( condition1 ){
statements
}elseif ( coditon2 ){
statements
}elseif( condition3 ){
…
}else{
statements
}
Web Programming 43
 Control structures (cont’d)
▪ Conditional statement
( condition ) ? True_value : False_value

Example:
…
<?php
$year = (int)date( “Y”);
echo ( $year % 4 == 0 ) ? “Leap Year” : “Not
Leap Year”;
?>
Intern
… 44
 Control structures (cont’d)
▪ Switch
switch ( expression ){
case value 1:
statements
break;
…
case value n:
statements
break;
default:
45
Intern statements
 Control structures (cont’d)
❖Looping constructs

▪ For loop
for( initialization; condition; increment ){
loop body
}

▪ Foreach loop
foreach( array as [key=>]value ){
loop body
46
Intern }
 Control structures (cont’d)
▪ Example
…
$arr = array(“name”=>”Abebe”, “dept”=>”CS”,
“year”=>3, “cgpa”=>3.5);
foreach( $arr as $key=>$value ){
echo $key . “ = “ . $value . “<br>”;
}
//output
name = Abebe
dept = CS
Intern
year = 3
47
 Control structures (cont’d)

▪ While loop
while( condition ){
loop body
}

▪ Do-while loop
do{
loop body
}while( condition );
48
Intern
 Control structures (cont’d)
❖break
▪ ends execution of the current for, foreach,
while, do-while or switch structure.
▪ accepts an optional numeric argument which
tells it how many nested enclosing structures
are to be broken out of.

❖continue
▪ used within looping structures to skip the rest
of the current loop iteration
Intern
▪ execution continues at the condition
49
 Control structures (cont’d)
❖return
▪ If called from within a function, the return
statement immediately ends execution of the
current function, and returns its argument as
the value of the function call
▪ If return is called from within the main script
file, then script execution ends.

50
Intern
 Control structures (cont’d)
❖include / require
▪ Format: include “file”; or require “file”;
▪ includes and evaluates the specified file.
▪ include generates a warning while require
generates a fatal error. Otherwise, both
structures behave the same way.

❖include_once / require_once
▪ similar in behavior to include / require with the
only difference being that if the code from a
Intern
file has already been included / required, it
51
 Control structures (cont’d)
❖Example
vars.php
<?php

$color = 'green';
$fruit = 'apple';

?>

test.php
<?php

echo "A $color $fruit"; // A

include 'vars.php';

echo "A $color $fruit"; // A green apple

?>
52
Intern
 Functions

❖User defined functions may be

declared as follows:

<?php
function function_name($arg_1, $arg_2,
..., $arg_n)
{
function body
[return $retval;]
53

}
Intern
 Conditional functions
<?php
$defined= true;

// We can't call f1() from here since it doesn't exist yet, but
we can call f2()

f2();

if ($defined) {
function f1() {
echo "I don't exist until program execution reaches me.\n";
}
}

// Now we can safely call f1() since $defined evaluated to true

if ($defined) f1();

function f2() {
echo "I exist immediately upon program start.\n";
}
54
?>
Intern
 Functions within functions
<?php
function f1(){
function f2(){
echo "I don't exist until f1() is called.\n";
}
}

/* We can't call f2() yet since it doesn't exist. */

f1();

/* Now we can call f2(), f1()'s processing has made it

accessible. */

f2();
?>

55
Intern
 Functions (cont’d)
❖Recursive functions
Example
<?php
function recursion($a){
if ($a < 20) {
echo "$a \r\n";
recursion($a + 1);
}
}
?>

❖All functions in PHP have the global

scope - they can be called outside a
function even if they were defined
inside and vice versa.
56
Intern
 Function arguments
❖PHP supports passing arguments by
value (the default), passing by
reference, and default argument values.
❖To pass an argument to a function by
reference, you can prepend an
ampersand (&) to the argument name in
the function definition.
Example
function getDate( &$arg1 ){
$arg1 = date(“d-m-Y”);
}
57
…
Intern
 Function arguments (cont’d)
❖To define an argument with a default
value, the default value can be
assigned to the argument in the
function definition.
function sample( $arg1, $arg2 = “initial
value” ){
…
}

when calling:
Intern
58
 Function arguments (cont’d)
❖PHP allows you to use arrays and
special type NULL as default values
❖The default value must be a constant
expression, not a variable, a class
member or a function call.
❖Note that when using default
arguments, any defaults should be on
the right side of any non-default
arguments; otherwise, things will not
work as expected.
59

Example
Intern
 Returning values
❖Values are returned by using the
optional return statement.
❖Any type may be returned, including
lists and objects.
❖This causes the function to end its
execution immediately and pass
control back to the line from which it
was called.
❖To return a reference from a function,
you have to use the reference operator
60

& in both the function declaration and

Intern
 Returning values
Example

<?php
function &returns_reference(){
return $someref;
}

$newref =& returns_reference();

?>

61
Intern
Thank You For your
Patience!